AUGUSTA — U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, said recently that support from Gov. Paul LePage is “critical” to her victory in a Republican primary in 2012.

LePage has previously said he would back Snowe in her bid for a fourth Senate term. However, it’s never been clear whether the governor would actively campaign for her, a move that could rile some members of the tea party who consider Snowe an enemy of the movement’s libertarian ideology. 

On Wednesday, the governor said his personal relationship with Snowe transcended politics and he didn’t agree with all of her decisions during her 33-year career in Congress. Nonetheless, LePage said he would campaign for her if she asked.

That’s good news for Snowe, who faces two tea party challengers, Andrew Ian Dodge and Scott D’Amboise. While political analysts question whether either candidate poses a significant threat to Snowe and her well-oiled fundraising and messaging machine, rumors have spread of a third well-funded Republican joining the fray. 

If that third challenger emerges, LePage’s active support could be significant. The governor’s conservative credentials are unchallenged. And Snowe knows it.

“Hopefully, (LePage) will do whatever he can in his certainly busy life,” she said. “Because he certainly would be very helpful in that regard, without question.”

Snowe said she and LePage hadn’t formalized an agreement, but the governor had been very helpful and had attended events on her behalf. Asked whether LePage would appear with her on the campaign trail, Snowe said, “That he can contribute in the primary is very important to me because you can’t get to the next level if you can’t get to the primary. That’s critically important.”

She added, “I think he would do anything that I would ask, but I haven’t had that conversation.”

The tea party reaction to LePage’s endorsement of Snowe has been mixed. On the Maine Refounders message board, some members said they respected the governor’s loyalty to Snowe given that her late husband, Peter Snowe, helped lift LePage from poverty when he was a youngster living in Lewiston and helped him gain admission to Husson College.

But Steve Martin, a radio host for the Aroostook Watchmen, described LePage’s decision to campaign for Snowe as a betrayal.

“We’ve been had, folks,” Martin wrote. 

Martin claimed LePage had promised to stay neutral in the race.

“Paul is going to make himself a one-termer, and for what?” Martin said. “For supporting a treasonous, one-world-order globalist like Snowe? Are we really buying that he couldn’t have gotten into Husson without Peter Snowe’s help? Husson takes anything with a pulse.”

Snowe insisted that her track record has more in common with tea party values than most people acknowledge.

“If you look at the tea party … and I’ve talked to a lot of members, there’s no one umbrella group,” she said. “They’re a disparate group, but the bottom line is that most of their frustration is based on fiscal issues. People should not be surprised where I stand on a number of those issues.”

Snowe said that while it had become fashionable to criticize her reputation as a moderate, the Republican she represents is “the traditional Republican” who has long defined the party. 

“Have I changed on certain issues? To some degree, perhaps,” she said. “But I’ve been fastened to certain principles. The party may have changed in some way, but it doesn’t have anything to do with how I’ve changed. I haven’t deviated.”

smistler@sunjournal.com

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